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tv   [untitled]    September 20, 2010 2:30pm-3:00pm PST

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aye been in san francisco 20 years. i'm homeless. i got a good cup of coffee. i got a number. today i'm 359. >> you try to do the right thing and make a point to do what you have to to be at one place. they have all the services at one building. i can spend 4 hours touching each table ask and getting the information i need to get back on my feet. they are providing the services
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under one roof. you don't have to go here or there or wait until next week. >> at the time we opened we have folks waiting outside to come in. >> good morning. >> what we are doing is trying to find out what they want and need and getting them to their services as fast as possible. >> i came to the eye glasses program. making a couple of phone calls to my family at home. >> some housing, i'm here for employment. may be see about -- i've never been to one of these. i have not been homeless before. >> the scareiest are the people who are recently homeless who look like me. look like they could be my friend or family member. a few wrong choices and bad luck got them here. >> i was laid off 2-1/2 weeks
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ago and came to the project to -- >> i've been married to the same man, my childhood sweetheart he started doing drugs. we went from a nice out in texas to nothing. the next step in the process is they get linked up with a volunteer. this is the heart and soul of the public connect. we greet clients. shake their hands. ask them to follow us and talk to them as we bring them to the hall and lead them to the first station. you find they are humbling on both sides. humbling for me. it's a great opportunity to give the folks the respect they deserve and don't get enough of. >> these are the people we step over on the way to our jobs.
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i was thankful to the mayor. our jobs are about helping people. this is another way for us to give back to our community that treats us very well. i like the way they take you around to get you started. that's nice. they let you go and thoser the different things you need. >> are you with a program, now? >> i was a long time -- >> you want a job search? >> career planning [inaudible]. you are interested in getting into the trades? and that is where they will double check your trading skills you got and put you on a crew and you can do construction work or any kind of construction. >> okay. >> good. are you receiving food stamps?
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>> no. >> not medical or nothing. >> no. >> we got to get you hooked up. >> this the department of human searchss this is the benefit's section much the beauty on coming here today is that we brought all of our requirements to this place, this station. the assessment. the orientation, we have the screening propose, the finger imaging this helps people who are unable to tolerate going to different appointments on several days. >> i want to talk to people from housing and shelter. there are several jobs i have been given it's a matter of following up. >> i'm going to get my eye glasses, try to. when i got here they said 60
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people. not everybody will get a pair. 8 million people in san francisco who are homeless. >> i volunteered for the eye screening. they are appreciative, they tell us that. and they have come back to say, thank you very much. we appreciate this. it's made a difference in my life. there was a guy today that couldn't see so near sighted he couldn't seebeyond 2 or 3 inches. everything is a blur. it's a miracle for him. >> they are not doing anymore screening for the day. i will go to health care, next. >> this is the medical section where they come and give us their names and we ask them to have a seat with the rn. there are 6 rn's that will find out what they need. it could be just to see a doctor. they will sit here, write an
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assessment and someone will escourt them to where the doctors are. we have 2 if not more licensed dentests that look at people's mouth. they get a card to a drop-in clinic. the only thing that holds us back is we don't have enough dentists to treat the number of people. we would treat more people. >> this is not an area that people deal with. it can be a significant barrier. we see 185 to 200 clients. in the dmv area we see 300 to 350. >> it's overwhelming but helpful. there are a lot of people willing to help. >> at cafe connect we have
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volunteers that work as waiters. everyone who come here experiences a surprise that it's such an easy thing to relate to this group of people. when you are out of the street you ignore them. when you are here you treat them like human beings. people are gratified. >> you give back to people. you give back to our community and it makes the world a little less cruel. >> i heard people in line talking about the donation when they walked out. it was nice to see people come and get the things they want and leave. it's rewarding for our employees to help out. >> the feedback i have gotten from the employees today has been positive. they are encouraged that the fact the city is doing something like this for the homeless. >> i got involved, my son adam
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who's a teacher in san francisco participated and invited me. >> i got involved with a friend. i came a couple months ago and wanted to make it a priority to come again and invite my family and more friends. >> it's well organized. i'm impressed how organized it is. it feels wonderful to be a part of it. >> affords dignity to the people who affords the services. >> every service you can need or get you started is here under one roof. if you leave here you should have [inaudible]. the bottom line is you make >> we thought we wouldd< take ts
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weekly video out on the road. we are here at recology at the recycling center. if you ever wondered where your recyclables go, and this new mandate for composting, the new challenges and mandates around recycling, what we are trying to achieve -- it all starts right here. we just marked an important milestone in our city. i would argue important this nationn francisco has now achieved a 77% diversion rate, the highest in america. no big city can lay claim to diverting that much of their waste, and that is why that composting requirement was so important. this is why our efforts to consumption and distribution and the like of plastic water bottles is so important. it is because we want to reduce that waste going into the
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landfill. we want to reduce the burden on our environment. we want to create jobs. the folks on the line behind me and above me, those are folks that have employment because of these programs. we have added over 118 people in the last couple of years to the roles of the employed in these green collar jobs because of the recycling and composting programs. we actually created economic stimulus by building facilities like this and putting people to work to do that job. ball the folks out here in the hard hats are also supported by people in the office is doing the processing, doing accounting, doing the bookkeeping, so there is a multiple in terms of jobs that are created because of programs like we have established. it was error, we were less than 50%. when i first w6urw@8yyixorwakñwe were roughly 35% effective,
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which was pretty impressive. it was higher than almost any other big city in this country, but we had an= reaching 50%, and they said it could not be done. we said we would reach 70%, and i was so proud when we broke 72%, and here we are with a goal of 75% by 2010, and not only did we achieve that. as i just region, we are at 77%. on our way -- ahead of schedule in fact, to be at 0 waste by 2020. there is no city that i know of anywhere in the world that could ever even imagine within the next number of years to be at zero ways. this is achievable because think about this -- even though we are at 77%, the remaining trash that comes here that ends up in a landfill -- already, we have identified 2/3 of it that could easily be diverted if folks would do more composting at home
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and do more recycling at home and use these bins you see behind me. i do not want this to become a psa for our recycling efforts, although that is always good, and remember, it is the kids teaching the adults, which is always good. but this is good for the environment, good for the economy, and a san francisco can do this, cities across california and cities across america can do this. i will remind you of the great line by michelangelo, who said that the biggest risk is not that we aim to hawaii and miss but that we aim to low and --. it would have been easy for us to have a goal of 50% recycling rate by 2020. a lot of states, a lot of cities across the state, that will be tow%8x4ç:vw1qs8mna ++%uq
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when you do that, you get people to organize that quality of imagination, where people in the private sector and public sector, using the entrepreneurial and innovative spirit coming up with new ideas and attitudes that may seem untoward or a little controversial or extreme at first, but suddenly, when you peel it back and look back two or three years, you go, "my gosh, that makes so much since." if you make a few mistakes in the process, but ultimately, you create a goal that is accomplished that becomes an example for other people and other cities to achieve with similar goals and accomplish similar efforts. we are really proud of our collective effort in san francisco and the people in a city that have stepped up. they mocked us a bit. i even was a little concerned about the composting requirement at first, but now i'm doing it. other folks are doing it, and it is really exciting to achieve these extraordinary goals. green collar jobs. the new economy. this is our future. this is real. it is happening now, and it could be happening everywhere
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else, not just in the great city and county of san francisco. >> good afternoon. i'm the director san francisco's department of the environment. we are here today with our partners to make an announcement about san francisco's accomplishments in the cycling that can only be called the story. san francisco is a city that knows how to recycle. over the years, our city has been a nationwide later in recycling, and mayor newsom has made it a priority to develop new recycling and composting
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programs, set aggressive goals, and keep us on track. without further delay, it is my pleasure to introduce mayor gavin newsom, who has some spectacular news. mayor newsom: i think this is the completion of your first week on the job. melanie was with the speaker's office doing similar work, so that we could be successful in san francisco and but in a position to make a lot of the announcements we have been making bore over the last number of years. i happen to think this is a big deal. i think that other cities across the country that struggle to deal with the issue of their diversion rates with landfills that are literally filling up, that are becoming floating regattas of landfills that are being pushed up and down rivers and across the coast and around the continent, that this represents an important milestone, the cities can think
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differently and act differently and do some of them substantially differently -- do something substantially differently as it relates to their waist. what we know, we do not think, is that 1 million to 1.5 million people are moving into the urban cores and consuming roughly 80% of the earth's natural resources in these urban centers. what do you do with that consumption? what do you do with that waste? what do you do with the construction debris associated with accommodating for that mass urbanization as it relates to the majority of the planet now living in these urban course? in san francisco, we have answered these questions to the degree that no other american city has answered. we have answered these questions in a way that not only protect our environmental framework and footprint but at it -- advances and economic framework and paradigm that creates wealth, opportunities, jobs, as we
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reduce our aversion rates and greenhouse gas emissions concurrently. this is a big announcement. was not that long ago that i got into local government, that we. 35% of our waste was being diverted from the landfill. it was pretty good at the time, and i'm not 90 years old. it was not that long ago. and we set these audacious targets, people saying, "there they go once again. this cannot be done nearly this will destroynqñ!ó the economic c of the city. this is burdensome, the government coming in and determining how someone should ask, how someone should " weç hit that goal. people said it was amazing. other cities said that it was amazing and asked how we did it. they came out here, and we started to see the first groups
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of folks coming on tour, not to see coit tower, not to see the golden gate bridge, not to jump on a cable car or go down to the birthplace of the biotech industry or ucsf. they started coming down to the recycling facility. foreign leaders coming onshore to the recycling facility asking how we did it. we have experts from government, from business. we saw folks in academia saying that san francisco is doing something right, so we reach that milestone of 15%, and we said that is not a stretch bowl. that was a good and impressive first start, but let's raise the bar. what we did a number of years ago, i think it was seven years ago, we set forth our new, more audacious goals, and that goal was to reach 75% of version by 2010.
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-- 75 percent diversion. and eventually get to zero waste by 2020. people said that was cute, that was fun, but these guys have lost it because they do not understand. i remember listening to these experts saying that we just did not understand how it works. the first 50% or 60% is the easy part. once you get past 60% or 65%, then every% increase comes at a huge cost. it is too difficult, but we thought we could put it together, and one of the ideas was to create a construction and debris ordinance, which we passed in 2006. this was landmark legislation. where we said if you were going to develop or get in the construction business or remodel or reconstruct and demolish, the you have got to get -- what? roughly 60%? 65% of that debris diverted.
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that helped. the construction industry was not necessarily opposed. they saw some benefit. they have got to dispose of this one way or another. requires some on-site disposals and strategies that at the time took a little different kind of thinking, but eventually, people got it right. we extended the small folks you see behind me in the pickup truck, so they do not have to worry about their back yard and their little kitchen, but for the bigger projects, we did this, and suddenly, our numbers started to creep up over 70%. no city in america has ever come close to that. there are cities just down the road that have not even reach 50%. big cities can never even imagined 50% or 55%, and here we are. i remember being mayor out here a number of years back, and we were proud of 7%.
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they said it would be very difficult to reach that 75%. that income is tough. until last year when we came out and we were out here and we have the hard hats on, and we came out and said because not only that construction and building debris ordinance, but because of this new idea on composting, which we realize was a big component of the remaining waste that is here that was not being diverted that if we could raise the bar be on the first ordinance with this next order is, that we could reach that goal, and we announced that we were close. we were at 72%. this again was historic and people were mesmerized, and no one more than us, that we could reach that goal because the incredible work that you see from the folks behind me and the imagination of recology. and then composting happen. first city in america to require composting.
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"san francisco's off the deep been. they have lost." we do not know why it did not happen before. the ban on plastic bags, and no one could shop again. we have shut the economy down. water bottles. now with composting, you have gone too far. "you mean, sir, that you will require me to take eggshells, and i have to put them where? the green, the blue, no, no, the green -- that is too much." san franciscans could never figure this out, and some actually went to my private garbage. reporters had a photograph taken of my garbage. it opened the lid. came down and visit me at home. there was a top of a water bottle in a green been, not the blue one. this is outrageous.
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the garbage police are next because they are going to find you. this is a way of generating money. of course, what we were ultimately generating was hysteria. now, we are here to celebrate what we have really generated is jobs. the folks you see behind me are green collar examples. these are the folks that because of these proposals, because of these new ideas have work and have the dignity that comes with a paycheck. 118 jobs have been created in the last couple of years since we instituted some of these new proposals. recology has over 1000 folks disproportionately in the recycling business now. that is why they changed their name, so there was this notion
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of recovery, as opposed to the old scavenger framework. it was all about hauling and just dumping. now, it is about hauling and diverting, and the jobs that are part of this are the jobs of the new economy, and that is what we are celebrating. 77% of our waste is being diverted, highest in the united states of america, shattering our hopes and expectations of reaching that 75% milestone and giving us so much mentum -- momentum and enthusiasm that that goal, talk about a truly 20% city, is proving this can be down, right in front of us. let me end as i began -- enthusiastically. i do not think this is a big deal. i know this is a big deal. the more i tell, not just the state, but the country, and i see folks all around the world, and they are dumbfounded by what the city has accomplished. you know how cities really
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operate? what you do not want to understand is what goes on and goes down here. this is about waste water. this is the stuff that lies beneath the surface, and at the end of the day, it is the stuff that really matters because at the end of the day is the work that these guys are doing behind me in this building. jobs, the new economy, these mandates that brought people together, not divided people. no, garbage police are not out there. the business community did not disappear. quite the contrary. what we have done is raise the bar for others. we have given people the sense that this could be done. more to the point, why should you care about this outside of san francisco? you should care deeply about this because again, it is those
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in urban centers that are consuming the vast majority of resources and then disposing them in your back yards in a landfill near you. unless we come up with creative ideas, we are going to be dumping all of our waste. these cities will be dumping their waist down the road from your playground, down the road from your park, so this is something that all californians, all americans should be gravitating towards and enthusiastic about. the new paradigm of being able to deal with a very tangible thing that needs to be dealt with in an urban america in a way that creates jobs, creates wealth, and promotes the ultimate frame of environmental sensibility and environmental responsibility, reducing methane gas emissions, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and reducing the need to purchase and develop larger, more burdensome, more toxic landfills
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throughout the region, state, and the country, including on those will barges you see in other cities that just do not get this. i am proud of this. i want to thank the rest of the folks at recology the good work that was done by our commission, and the partnerships that we formed. this is a true public-private partnership, and i'm thankful for all the hard working men and women at recology. thank you. [applause] >> hang you, mayor newsom, and thank you for helping us achieve our 77% landfill that version rate -- thank you, mayor newsom. we need to focus our attention on achieving 0 waste by 2020. to meet our goal, we will need
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the continued participation of all san franciscans in the mandatory composting and recycling program, making sure that everything possible goes into the blue and green bins, and as little as possible goes into the black. as the mayor pointed out, we sent the smallest amount of material to landfills since we have been keeping records. less than 15% the year before. we are right on track, and if we keep up achieve 0 well in san francisco well before 2020. .9 waste in san francisco well before 2020. we already accomplished this lovely to a degree with bans on hard to recycle products like plastic bagszek]ñisr and a the. there are actions globally, but change does need to happen at the state and federal level, and that is why san francisco has been
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supporting extended producer responsibility legislation in sacramento and washington. taxpayers and local governments shell out millions of dollars every year to handle problem products. it is time that we require that manufacturers take responsibilityrw for their own actions and their products. when we hold corporations responsible for making sure the products they sell get recycled properly and one public health and environmental costs are factored into that product price, manufacturers have a strong incentive to design goods that last longer, are easily recyclable, and ultimately are less toxic. we need to give a lot of credit to our partners at recology for the city's recycling success. we do not have a garbage company. we have a recycling company. so it is my distinct pleasure to introduce recology's ceo and san francisco's